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le hour, that they might escape that doleful company. "What are you going to do?" said Martyn, with a yawn. "Let's have a swim before dinner." "Water's hot. I was at the bath to-day." "Play you game o' billiards--fifty up." "It's a hundred and five in the hall now. Sit still and don't be so abominably energetic." A grunting camel swung up to the porch, his badged and belted rider fumbling a leather pouch. "Kubber-kargaz-ki-yektraaa," the man whined, handing down the newspaper extra--a slip printed on one side only, and damp from the press. It was pinned up on the green-baize board, between notices of ponies for sale and fox-terriers missing. Martyn rose lazily, read it, and whistled. "It's declared!" he cried. "One, two, three--eight districts go under the operations of the Famine Code ek dum. They've put Jimmy Hawkins in charge." "Good business!" said Scott, with the first sign of interest he had shown. "When in doubt hire a Punjabi. I worked under Jimmy when I first came out and he belonged to the Punjab. He has more bundobust than most men." "Jimmy's a Jubilee Knight now," said Martyn. "He's a good chap, even though he is a thrice-born civilian and went to the Benighted Presidency. What unholy names these Madras districts rejoice in--all ungas or rungas or pillays or polliums!" A dog-cart drove up in the dusk, and a man entered, mopping his head. He was editor of the one daily paper at the capital of a Province of twenty-five million natives and a few hundred white men: as his staff was limited to himself and one assistant, his office-hours ran variously from ten to twenty a day. "Hi, Raines; you're supposed to know everything," said Martyn, stopping him. "How's this Madras 'scarcity' going to turn out?" "No one knows as yet. There's a message as long as your arm coming in on the telephone. I've left my cub to fill it out. Madras has owned she can't manage it alone, and Jimmy seems to have a free hand in getting all the men he needs. Arbuthnot's warned to hold himself in readiness." "'Badger' Arbuthnot?" "The Peshawur chap. Yes: and the Pi wires that Ellis and Clay have been moved from the Northwest already, and they've taken half a dozen Bombay men, too. It's pukka famine, by the looks of it." "They're nearer the scene of action than we are; but if it comes to indenting on the Punjab this early, there's more in this than meets the eye," said Martyn. "Here to-day and gone to-morr
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